Jonathan Miles on His Second Novel "Want Not"

11/5/2013 12:46PM

In his debut novel, "Dear American Airlines," author Jonathan Miles established himself as a literary voice able to capture the acute pains and joys of human life. He joins Lunch Break to discuss his next book, "Want Not." Photo: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.

This transcript has been automatically generated and may not be 100% accurate.

... I ... in his debut novel dear American Airlines Alton Jonathan miles south to sell among critics and the unique literary voice able catching the acute pains and joys ... of human life now with his next book ... one not out this week mouse takes is writing ... to the next level in a story that explains ... Anik schoolers are tangled relationship with all of the physical ... debris in our lives he joins Lunch Break right now a giant a ... new great congratulations number one Q ... and this thought you weeks ago the stories of three incredibly disparate groups of character if you got a freakin couple the dumpster dives there for the wheel is ... still struggling with new life in divorce ... and debt collections magnet that stuff ... is what binds them all together and you get the idea for this ... weather stays differ ways you can the ... picture I took an approach ... character ... revealing character this intersection ... and this dialogue and its disposal against the tide has built a robot too ... I was really interested in what we share the ... bubbles physically and you know in this book there are of he would dispose marriages are people dispose of the past and ... and what it means ... beautiful metaphorically nonetheless when we ... dispose of the family to rid of something and do we really ... you there's an all new book The Black Sea can ask you to meeting you need it so happens halfway through the book but I think ... that captures the essence of what you're talking about if you don't mind but in the Atlantic to take the ... garbage was the only truthful thing civilization produced ... because that's where all the dirty secrets went ... all the adulterous love letters in The murder weapons in the abandoned homes in the unflattering photos ... than ever to be counted empty booze bottles and the wants of Kleenex dampened by a woman who can understand why she rises from bed ... at three am and it's creeping by her perfect sleeping husband and children ... to weaken the kitchen table ... about imperfections she can't quite name ... and then on to many different people in very different ways you had to do a lot of practical research to be able to get into the minds of licensed characters ... tells about some of them are ... unique things you have to get a report this book one of the NSA's hang out with the offering to BBB for those who don't know these are these are of people to the gunk are mostly but to ... who have lost the ecologically based that we as a society of produce so much waste ... that you can actually live off the wave strains of there so that the embodiment of conscience are waste conscience ... of the from dumpsters basically and so hanging out with them ... and eating with them ... was part of it you're a dumpster dive I didn't know ... how the U S stocks on very low level ... there's a screen expected to make ... bagels peanuts for yogurt that was fine it was one guy at the Manhattan the buffet with all the steam table since it is perfect the end of the night ... you know all the cousins went back and have dinner for a week ... NSN will tell combined yes ... and he said full it's all combined in your stomach anyway ... it was too nasty far I mean this is that this doesn't have much time to wonder how he cut out the other you know another part of the book and the genetic character is apparently all timers ... and this is something very personal from your own life achievement dealing with me how to walk that balance between training and at ... restoring its personnel ... and certain making it somebody else's story ... but ... I think very often of wood ... with fiction ... what I do unless the traders do is we have these questions about our own lives that we try to explore of protection ... and so was hard not to lay your own life creep in and you know one of the Saints is the study till Summers was ... was sort of the brain disposing of things and have my mother has also mustard ... and and just watching little by little each year by year or more of war for praying dispose of more of those members who was until the painful and and it just became something I wanted to ... to ... get my kid my head around the fields around the internet Addison part of the book is well what were disposing of what our brains and increased his disposal as well yes yes and that can be maddening with Alzheimer's because there's things do you want to be Obel sake one regard certain members can sit this one can be lost in the second half of the brain just keeps doing ... it notes mysterious and awful process ... he was striking in use in Green is not that I told him about two-thirds of that through it but ... you know he's he's the amount t tell you include about everyday life whether it's the detail of a stink bomb and a teenager's bedroom and your pages upon pages of her trying to kill it ... and its my maybe because we'd been there when we feel that ... GE may not mean into your ... money in the writing process for you when ... these moments happen in everyday life ... how do you store them Micra writing a book to jot down any reducing or something E-mail us at our craft classes ... and shopping email and very often ... just reciting something on the phone ... um but often they can be something for touch ups to could see him every was just me in my office from the would insist on ... it so the worms its way onto the pages well but I think that's with ... peanuts into fiction does um perhaps ... even better than a lot of other forms is ... is you can you can ... the observance of detail ... and bring that and um you know it's fiction reading a lot a room ... and you can really pull things out with the tail ... since this book is so much about stuff I'm wondering in your own life ... how has your relationship with teens with objects ... change since writing this ... in tearing us but stuff but three children so it is drowning in stuff ... possibly I think that was also part of it you know it's just ... it's just that so everything is just so disposable ... and so plastic and can attest to feel him swimming through it and ... it feels ... wrong ... in so many ways and you know this is this is what we can ... swim leaving behind smiling it's a play on some reading is behind it as the book was not as out